Fast Diet

Is a fast diet safe and effective?To tell the truth, a dry fast diet (zero intake) for two days may be effective if today is Wednesday, you want to fit into your costume by Friday, you only need to lose 10 pounds, and you don't mind weakening your body. But beyond that kind of ill-advised behavior, dieting is neither fast nor permanent. Yes, you can change your diet to become thin forever. And a fast or many fasts may be an important part of that diet. When you say or hear the word "diet", you can win by thinking "life eating pattern" rather than "weight loss system", and when you say or hear "fast diet", you can think of a "life eating pattern that uses fasting properly" (see the last section of the article) rather than "system for losing weight quickly".

How fast can I lose weight?

You can gain and lose about one to two pounds per week pretty easily over the long haul, give or take. Don't sneer; that's 50 to 100 pounds per year! Much faster than that, unless you are beginning a fast as mentioned above and below, is not healthy or enjoyable. And neither is fasting improperly.

If you fast without water, you can lose up to 10 pounds in two days (though I don't recommend a fast longer than one day without water), but that is a very temporary weight loss. In the later stages of long fasts, when fat is being burned for energy, it is normal to lose one to two pounds per day. That's because fat has 3500 calories per pound, your body runs on around 2000 to 3000 calories daily, and there is some water and other matter associated with the fat stored in your body.

But the truth is that as you have probably heard before, any weight you lose with the word "diet" on your mind, especially a fast (quick) diet, is likely to become a quickly forgotten and reversed victory. Below we will talk about how to enjoy eating yourself to thinness and health forever.

So what is the good of a fast diet?

As you can see from the previous section, a long term fast may not really cause you to lose weight faster than you might lose weight without a fast. So if you can lose 50 to 100 pounds per year without a fast, what place does a fast have in a diet?

The main benefits of a fast as part of "weight loss", or a "fast diet", (but remember the key to becoming permanently thin is thinking of it as a life habit) are:

1. a proper fast changes your attitude toward food


2. a proper fast increases your ability to change other factors (spiritual, psychological, emotional, and social) that are at the root of your weight problem


3. a proper fast improves your overall health

What is a proper fast?

A proper fast is a fast that is either of similar length and type to what you have experienced in the past, or a fast in which you have the close attention of an experienced guide. If you don't wish to use the close attention of an experienced guide, please be wise by only doubling the length of your fast after you have ample experience with your proven fast (at least four fasts separated by eating six times as long as the next fast) . Call that the "Haws 2-4-6 rule of self-guided fasting"; 2 days of fasting followed by 12 days of eating done four times, then 4 days of fasting followed by 24 days of eating done four times, etc. Yes that means you will be preparing for nearly four years before fasting 32 days. If you are in a bigger rush, get a guide. Beyond that, proper fasts come in all flavors, lengths, and frequencies, any of which may be helpful to you:

Flavors of proper fasts:

• 12-hour fast dry or with water nightly (You may have been doing this all your life.)


• 24-hour to 48-hour fast with water weekly


• 2-week fast with juice or water and possibly enemas yearly


• 3-week to 6-week fast with juice or water and possibly enemas once or yearly

There are many opinions about fasting. But all the flavors of fasts above and more have been and are continually practiced by thousands of people. To learn more, research "Herbert Shelton", "Nathaniel Bronner", "Elson Hass", and "water fasting". But remember fasting isn't complicated. Shelton, who supervised over 30,000 fasts of chronically ill and terminal patients, losing only three, said that enemas are not necessary in a fast. The most important factor of a fast is to follow the definition I gave of a proper fast.

What diet will make me thin fast?

I have reviewed and harmonized many major diets, including some that seem on the surface diametrically opposed like Atkins (no carbs!) and McDougall (go carbs!). All of them contain an element of wisdom. I have read the stories of many peoples' successes and failures in trying to be thin. I have listened to the conventional wisdom of thin people. And I have distilled these universal diet principles that you already know:

Universal diet thinness principles:

• Thinness is good. It's springy, petite, shapely, and fun when you can pinch only half an inch.


• Thinness isn't about dieting fast. It is about a wonderful life diet including a fast here and there.


• Refined food (white flour, white sugar, oil, trans fats, and all those "unpronounceable" ingredients), is a serious obstacle to thinness and health.


• The more natural color in the diet, the better. This is important. Are your meals light green, red, deep green, purple, yellow, black, and orange vs. indistinct shades of white to brown?


• Small permanent changes make big long-term differences. You can go slow, trading up a little at a time, and see big dividends toward permanent thinness. Learn and change, learn and change, learn and change. I started a long slide in weight when I changed my breakfast habit from oats, salt, milk, and honey to oats, orange juice, and raisins.

• Thin food is more fun, more enjoyable, and tastes better. In the words of "Star McDougaller" Mike Teehan, "I used to eat such large quantities of greasy globs of guck that taste was never the issue. Today food is an experience of pleasure." And I never enjoyed my oats so much before when I was using milk, salt, and honey.

• Eat all you want. See John McDougall's Maximum Weight Loss Plan for one way to eat yourself to health. It is much more fun and effective to control what you eat than how much you eat. My oatmeal breakfast is so large and sinfully delicious that I have no interest in chips and candy bars all morning (besides, those taste stale and fake).


• Envision one small change you can make immediately to one of your food habits. Deprivation doesn't work. You can find a whole new world for your food life. Do it one dish at a time.

So if you are so thin, what do you eat?

Yes, I am thin. I am 72" tall, and I weigh 155 lb today. My pulse rate and blood pressure are around 58 and 110/70. Here's what I eat (I have to confess I am currently slack on the exercise front):

• Breakfast: 1 quart oats, raisins, and oj. Sometimes I add nuts for calories. Sometimes I skip breakfast if I want to prolong my nightly fast. Skipping often backfires by leaving me hungry at the office where my all-you-can eat food is not handy, and I end up eating popcorn, V-8 juice (not bad), or even a salted nut bar or energy bar (not good).


• Morning snack: no morning snack except as above.


• Lunch: I am often too busy for lunch. Or I have Taco Bell tostadas Fresco and burritos Fresco or leftovers from dinner.


• Dinner/Supper: enormous helpings of combinations of these staple dishes
  
  
  
  • All-fruit smoothie with frozen banana, frozen berries (straw-, blue-, black-, or rasp-), frozen pineapple, orange juice, and room temperature water for help thawing
  
  
  • Beans, brown rice, spinach, lime, salsa, onion, garlic, generous salt, cilantro, tortillas (corn or white flour)
  
  
  • Stew of potatoes, brown rice, frozen mixed vegetables, suprise ingredients (squash, bell pepper, avocado, mushroom), generous sage, onion, garlic, generous salt
  
  
  • Spaghetti with white beans and $1 canned sauce in the most animal-(meat/milk)-free styles I can find
  
  
  • Potatoes and salsa
• Treats:
  
  
  
  • popsicles and soda pop for fun a couple dozen times yearly
  
  
  • ice cream, chicken, and burger a couple dozen times yearly when I don't say no socially (ice cream is a real health problem for me)
  
  
  • sugary Mexican fruit drinks or artificially flavored drinks for fun a couple of dozen times yearly
  
  
  • chips a couple of dozen times yearly
  
  
  • popcorn with oil here and there lightly (see morning snack)
  
  
  • candy when I am in the mood much less than weekly (I love smarties and candy corn, but don't like chocolate much; candy is a health problem for me, and I should eat more food so I don't have any candy)


• Rarely: medicine yearly or less except melatonin and herb tea occasionally


• Never: alcohol, tobacco, coffee, caffeine drinks

• Water: I keep my urine faintly yellow

• Fast: I fast with water, but no enemas, 12 hours nearly every day, 24 to 36 hours nearly every Sunday, and 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 days about monthly.

About the author

Tom Haws is 43-years old, has three children, and weighs less than he did in high school.
He is a civil engineer, computer programmer, and freelance writer. You can contact him for a chat or for personal thinness counseling by searching the web for "Tom Haws" or "Thomas Gail Haws".